The Institute for Translational Sciences, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, United States.
Sealy Center for Environmental Health and Medicine, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, United States.
Front Public Health. 2023 Jan 12;10:1070475. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1070475. eCollection 2022.
The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) focuses on reducing barriers to effective translational research that rapidly translates science to clinical and community interventions to improve individual and community health. Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) plays a crucial role in this process by bridging gaps between research and practice. It effectively generates bi-directional knowledge and communication by engaging patients and communities throughout the translation research process. Skills development, however, is critical to enable investigators and communities to establish successful partnerships in research. While there are many independent CEnR education programs nationally, few curricula are mapped to identified domains and competencies.
We located three comprehensive efforts to identify CEnR domains and competencies that we aligned to inform development of our curriculum, which we then mapped to these competencies. The first, undertaken by the NCATS Joint Workgroup on Researcher Training and Education and Community Capacity Building (JWG) was developed to assess training opportunities for academic researchers and community partners to increase their capacity to meaningfully engage collaborators in translational research. The JWG identified curricula, resources, tools, strategies, and models for innovative training programs and community engagement in all stages of research. It also conducted a gap analysis of deficiencies in available resources. Using Competency Mapping, they developed a framework for curriculum mapping that included eight domains, each with two to five competencies of knowledge, attitudes, and skills. The second aligned community-engaged research competencies with online training resources across the CTSA consortium, while the third was focused on Dissemination and Implementation training.
Further informed by a conceptual model to advance health equity, we have adapted and integrated these components into a set of modules designed to educate and empower investigators, trainees, students, and community partners to engage in effective CEnR.
This curriculum fills an important gap in our workforce development and helps to meet needs of our community partners. Following program evaluation and validation, we will offer the curriculum for use and further evaluation by other groups interested in using or adapting it for their own programming.
国家转化医学科学中心（NCATS）专注于减少有效转化研究的障碍，该研究迅速将科学转化为临床和社区干预措施，以改善个人和社区的健康。社区参与研究（CEnR）在这个过程中起着至关重要的作用，它通过在研究和实践之间架起桥梁来弥补差距。它通过在整个转化研究过程中让患者和社区参与进来，有效地产生了双向的知识和交流。然而，技能发展对于使研究人员和社区能够在研究中建立成功的伙伴关系至关重要。虽然全国有许多独立的 CEnR 教育项目，但很少有课程与确定的领域和能力相对应。
我们找到了三项全面的努力，以确定 CEnR 领域和能力，我们将其与我们的课程开发相联系，然后将其映射到这些能力上。第一项是由 NCATS 联合工作组在研究人员培训和教育以及社区能力建设（JWG）进行的，旨在评估学术研究人员和社区合作伙伴的培训机会，以提高他们在转化研究中与合作者进行有意义的合作的能力。JWG 确定了课程、资源、工具、策略和模型，用于创新培训计划和社区参与研究的所有阶段。它还对现有资源的不足之处进行了差距分析。使用能力映射，他们为课程映射开发了一个框架，其中包括八个领域，每个领域都有两到五个知识、态度和技能的能力。第二项工作是将社区参与研究的能力与 CTSA 联盟的在线培训资源相匹配，而第三项工作则专注于传播和实施培训。
进一步受到推进健康公平的概念模型的启发，我们已经对这些组件进行了改编和整合，形成了一组模块，旨在教育和授权研究人员、受训人员、学生和社区合作伙伴，以有效地参与 CEnR。
本课程填补了我们劳动力发展中的一个重要空白，并有助于满足我们社区合作伙伴的需求。在进行方案评估和验证后，我们将提供该课程供其他有兴趣使用或改编该课程用于自己方案的团体使用和进一步评估。
